AI Data Centers Move 3.8 Times Farther From European Cities as Power Availability Rewrites Site Selection
JLL data shows future European hyperscale projects moving much farther from major cities as developers follow available power.
Why it matters: AI infrastructure geography is being rewritten by electricity availability and land economics.
European hyperscale data centers scheduled for 2026 through 2028 are located an average of about 175 kilometers from major hubs, compared with 46 kilometers for projects delivered from 2022 through 2025, according to JLL data reported by Reuters. Greenfield projects also represent a much larger share of the future pipeline. The shift reflects the fact that large AI training campuses can follow grid capacity and lower-cost land into secondary markets because many training workloads are less latency-sensitive.